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What a fantastic evening! The 2009 Audies Award ceremony was a marvelous evening of conviviality, ending with the announcement of the Audio Publishers Association’s best titles of the year.  Here’s a recap of the winners: Audiobook of the Year: The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Neil Gaiman (HarperAudio) Distinguished Achievement in Production: Curse [...]

I’m taking a break from the fantastic day at the Audio Publishers Association’s Conference, and found this great story by Sue Corbett from Publishers Weekly. A rare book dealer found handcrafted books by Arnold Lobel that featured Frog & Toad a decade before the beloved F&T books were published! And Lobel’s daughter Adrianne has put [...]

Wow – this is exciting! OverDrive announces that a new software upgrade will make the majority of titles from the download service available to iPod, iTouch, and iPhone users. Here’s info from the press release: Cleveland, OH, May 27, 2009 – OverDrive (www.overdrive.com) today announced that digital audiobook catalogs from leading publishers will be compatible [...]

I’ve been busy winding up the school year – the last day with students is June 2nd! But tonight I’m packing for a long weekend in New York City (thank heavens for personal days). I’m going to my very first BookExpo America and to the Audio Publishers Association Conference on Thursday. But best of all, [...]

Audiobook contests seem to be a new trend – so much so that I’ve added a “Contests” tag to my posts! Playaway has a great contest running through July 10th – the Playaway $100,000 Givaway Stimulating America’s Libraries. Any public library employee over the age of 18 can enter. On June 1st, Playaway will begin [...]

The New York Times has a wonderful editorial by Verlyn Klinkenborg titled Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud. It certainly has resonated with plenty of people – it’s the top title in the most popular list. Here’s how it starts: Sometimes the best way to understand the present is to look at [...]

Got kids? How about students? Or teen advisory board members? Let them know about Listening Library’s “Fantasy Road Trip Contest!”   Teens between 13-18 years old may enter the contest by creating a video about these favorite book series: The Gemma Doyle Trilogy (The Sweet Far Thing), the Beka Cooper series (Bloodhound), and the Percy Jackson [...]

Take time to read The Booklist Interview: Lisette Lecat by Allison Block. Ms. Lecat is the marvelous narrator of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels, including Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. I love to find out about how master narrators first started in audiobooks – in Ms. Lecat’s instance, by recording [...]

I had the great good fortune to speak as an audiobook evangelist at the Massachusetts Library Association conference, along with audiobook narrator extraordinaire Johnny Heller. Heller is the recipient of accolades galore, including titles on YALSA & ALSC’s suggested audiobook lists, Audies nominations & award, PW’s Listen Up award, and AudioFile’s Best Voice of 2008. [...]

Grab this one quick! Audible is offering Brilliance Audio’s  The Merchant of Death , first volume in the Pendragon series, for free until May 12th. The series is hugely popular with my middle school fantasy fans – there’s even a graphic novel adaptation of the book. Rabid and reluctant readers alike will devourer this teen [...]